Movie Monday- My Dog: An Unconditional

For my movie review this week, I watched the documentary called: "My dog: An Unconditional Love Story. It's about famous New York celebrities and their dogs. It's not totally about Richard Gere, but he does have a few interviews in it about his dog. You can rent this movie from Netflix and it's an instant movie right now! I found this documentary to be very touching. Anyone who has a dog knows the unconditional love that you experience with them! This documentary isn't for you if you are not a dog lover. The documentary is from 2010 and many celebrites star in it such as Glenn Close, Lynn Redgrave, Richard Belzer, Edie Falco, Greg Louganis, Christopher Meloni, Isaac Mizrahi...and a few others.

Each celebrity tells you their story about their dog and what it has meant to them. Richard Gere says that he is the Alpha Male to no one in his family except his dog!

One of the most touching stories was that of the actress Didi Conn. Remember her? She was pink haired "Frenchie" from Grease. Well her son has Autism and people with Autism often fixate on one thing. Her son's fixation is on dogs! As a child he had sleeping problems and the problems ended once they got a dog! He bonded with his new dog and became best friends with him! His sleep problems finally ended because his dog knew he needed him and layed by his side in bed each night! One funny thing about their story was that the boy's dad said to him. "Please talk to me about something other than dogs. Ask your dad a question." The boy replied: "Dad, what's your favorite breed of dogs?!" lol What a cute and wonderful story about a boy and his dog!

This was a wonderful group of stories that really touched my heart! And of course I cried....but in a happy way!

Here is a photo from the documentary of Richard Gere, his dog, and his wife Carey Lowell. My husband walked in when I was watching this movie and exclaimed: "Is that his wife?" "She's that cute girl from Law and Order!" And I said "yes" and I added, that she is much cuter than Cindy Crawford! My husband exclaimed: "He was married to Cindy Crawford?!" And I said: "Where have you been?!" LOL

I give this a 9 on the Richard Gere hotness scale! Any guy who pours his heart out about his dog gets a higher rating in my opinion! :)

You can watch a preview of this movie here.

I have always had a dog in my life. There is something about them that is so wonderful. I always have said that I get more attached to a dog than I do people! And it's because dogs love you in an unconditional way and people do not.

I got my first dog "Spunky" when I was 5-years-old. I remember very clearly going to pick him out that day. I remember my mom saying we were going to get tires for the car and to take my blanket with me. I remember going into the house and seeing a lot of poodles. And I got to chose which one I wanted to take home! He was black and brown. I have a few photos of me and Spunky, I'll have to scan them in sometime soon!

This is my current dog Allie. She's a chihuahua mix. Her and I have a bond because we are the only two female in the house with three boys!

She is the alpha female in my house. She often herds me around by barking and biting at my feet! She is in love with my husband and I often wonder that she loves him more than I do! lol

She tolerates my son Ben, but absolutely dislikes my youngest Alex! If she is lying in my bed and he walks into the bedroom she barks and tries to snap at him. The bed is her domain. She even gets a little cranky when she is sleeping with my husband and I try to climb into bed! My husband goes to bed early and the dog will try to sneak upstairs so she doesn't have to sleep in her kennel. When I get to bed she is laying on my side of the bed near my pillow and dislikes it when I try to move her! lol

Like I said she's the alpha female in the household! lol

This photo was taken at my parent's camp. She absolutely loves it there!

What kind of bonding stories do you have about your dog? I would love to hear them!

Great Yard Sale Finds

I haven't blogged in over a week and I am very sorry! Things have been busy with Ben's school, soccer, and Alex's gymnastics class. Plus the doctors appointments and everything, my head has been spinning.

I do however have good news. Ben's heart is fine! YAY! Thank you everyone for all your well wishes, positive thoughts and prayers!

I wanted to post about the wonderful day I had today and the great things that I bought!

I am so lucky to live close to Kimba from A Soft Place To Land! If you read her blog you would know that she was clearing out a lot of her fantastic pieces, and I went to her yard sale today!

And let me tell you, it was by far the best yard sale of the year! Lots of great pieces, and I cannot wait to incorporate them into my home!

And I am so sorry Kimba for not introducing myself. I woke up at 6 got a shower, barely did anything with my hair, got the kids ready and I was on the road! It took me about 40 minutes to get there, but it was definitely worth it! I'm the one with the kids that were watching Star Wars in the car! lol

As you can see in the photo below, I got a metal planter, a of white couple of plates, and a magnetic board in the beautiful blue frame.

Isn't that blue magnetic board fabulous? It's covered in fabric and completely jumped out at me! I have great plans for that little board, and I cannot wait to share them with you! I just love that color, so fresh and relaxing!

The metal planter might end up being another fairy garden or a planter for the Cats & Kittens plants that I love! And the white plates will eventually have a vinyl monogram on them!
Look at that lovely green frame! It is sooo beachy and I just love it! I am going to put a photo from the beach in it once I get some glass for it. And can you believe that she had a pink frame similar to this and I passed it up! Yes I did! And I do regret it! lol I'll probably be going to the local goodwill stores over the next week trying to find it if no one bought it! lol

And I love this chippy white frame with the stitchery that says: "If the shoe fits!" I love Halloween and witches so this is just perfect for my home! And it's already on my mantle! Here is some scroll work plaques and a black metal frame. I think they are eventually going to go in my living room since it's accented in black. And this black bird cage is just one of my favorite finds! It's making me reconsider my bird themed loft/meditation room! It would look perfect in there!

And can you believe that I got all of these goodies for UNDER $20! How awesome is that?!
And lastly here is the strawberry pot that I got. I've always wanted one of these for my Cats & Kittens succulents, so I was happy to score this as well! Don't mind the house wrap still on my house, we are going to get siding really soon and I cannot wait!

The raccoon rock isn't from Kimba, it's a rock that I painted a few years ago and he just hangs out on my front porch.
Does anyone having any recommendation for planting Cats & Kittens? Should I wait until spring until I plant them in this pot? I know they do well in the Winter so I thought that they'd be fine in this pot on my front porch? Any suggestions?

Movie Monday-Intersection

Sorry that I'm a day late with my movie review. Because of the holiday weekend, I was very very busy. But late last night I stayed up and watched the movie "Intersection." It's from the year 1994, and also stars Sharon Stone.
This movie was a remake of an old French movie. I should have figured that it would suck! lol

As you can see I didn't like the movie. Richard Gere plays a married architect who is having an affair. He struggles with which life he wants...that with his wife, who is also his partner, at his successful Architect Firm...or his mistress whom he really loves.

Just when he thinks he knows what he wants, it all changes at an intersection.

I think the reason that I didn't like this movie was that the whole movie was made of flashbacks. That in itself wasn't bad, what was bad was that the flashbacks were all out of sequence! lol

It wasn't so much as confusing, but stupid really! It reminded me of a Lifetime Movie. Actually most Lifetime movies are better than this one! I wouldn't really waste your money renting this movie. If you have Netflix though it is an instant movie to watch right now.

I give it a 3 on the Richard Gere hotness rating. I don't like his mid-nineties look....again too much like Fraggle Rock!

Hopefully next week's movie won't be soo bad!

Friday Fragments

Today is finally Friday! And I haven't done a Friday Fragments in such a long time! They are so fun and I hope now to start doing them weekly! You can see other's Friday Fragments by visiting Mrs. 4444's blog here.

So this is what has gone on this week at my house:

***Monday was Ben's first day of Kindergarten. He loved it soo much and had such a great week! And he said the funniest thing to me this week. We were going over vocabulary words, and he needed to know the terms- "first," "second," "third," and etc. I knew that he knew what they meant but I thought I'd ask. I said: "Ben what does the word "first" mean?" And he said: "So and So (not going to mention their name) gets to go first in line everyday because their mommy is the teacher!" lol I just thought that was a very funny observance, since his teacher has her own child in his class! lol

For some reason I was thinking that things would get less hectic once he started going to school throughout the week, but my life seems even more chaotic! Yes he is not at home during the day but we now have homework, lunches to pack, and I have to drive to and from school! Things have gotten way out of hand here at home and my mission is to become more organized! I have to! I need things to be less chaotic and easier for me so I am not rushing around and I can spend more time crafting and doing fun things!

***As you can see from the photo below I have started a new project! I bought an old headboard and foot board from St. Vincent De Paul for $5, and it even included the rails! Sadly, I have had it since last year so I decided that it needed to be finished! The photo below is of the foot board. The headboard I had already started painting when I discovered that I didn't take a photo first! lol
I am painting it black and it is going to go in Ben's room which will have a "Star Wars" theme! Hopefully it will be finished in the next couple of days and I will post about it then.

***I have been freezing a lot of food lately. It saves so much time! So far we have use up some quesadillas that I froze and some spaghetti sauce! I hope to stock my freezer full of a lot of soups this fall!

***I cannot wait to start decorating for Halloween! As soon as I get my house all organized this week, I plan to start decorating!

***My oldest Ben had a checkup for school a couple of days ago to get the rest of his vaccinations. They discovered during that appointment that they heard something weird with his heart. He is getting a chest x-ray and EKG today, and will be seeing the cardiologist next Wednesday. Heart problems run in my husband's family, so please pray that this is nothing serious. I will keep you updated with what we find out. This is all in good timing though...he is due to have dental work in the next couple of weeks, and we definitely want to find out what's wrong before he has any work done!

***This weekend is going to be so busy for us. Ben has soccer practice tonight and we have a birthday luau party to attend on Saturday. Then we'll have Sunday and Monday to relax before school starts again on Tuesday!

Have a safe & Happy Labor Day weekend!

My Little Artist

Today we took a trip, outside of Pittsburgh, to pick up this little art desk that we found on Craigslist!

Alexander, my youngest son, absolutely LOVES creating! He is very imaginative and just loves to tell stories, paint, and color! I wanted to give him his own little creative space, and I always loved this desk made by Step 2. It has a place for all of his supplies and the top of his desk is a dry erase board that lifts up for additional storage!

Each side and the back of the desk has additional storage for his coloring books and tablets.
He spent the remainder of the day just being creative!

Here he is using the dry erase desktop! The best part was that this desk only cost $30 and it was in near perfect condition! There were no marks on it and it was super clean!

I think he is an awesome artist for only being three-years-old! Here is a picture he drew of me! He is drawing at the level of his older brother!

So while Ben is at school each day, this is probably where Alex will be spending his time! But that's ok, cause I like to be creative too!